Being committed to the promotion of freedom, democratic values, independence and the self-determination of all peoples, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation was cooperating with all parties to achieve the best results for Namibia and its citizens. Particularly under the light of the recent elections in the Republic of South Africa, it was the responsibility of the people and the voters to determine the future of Namibia. To that end, he encouraged the audience to come up with questions, ideas, and enquiries to the panellists after their individual introductions. The debate offered a Platform to the political parties to engage the voters on critical policy issues. It is hoped that the election debate and open public discussion on political issues and policy matters in an election year will continue unabated. The participation of the party representatives was very good. Eight parties were on the stage, and even SWAPO and Worker’s Revolutionary Party, who did not attend the first electoral debate, took part this second time.

Party statements and discussion

Being the moderator of the discussion, Professor Diescho introduced each Political Party and lined out the debate’s structure. The first question included the broader topic of the debate: What can Namibia learn from the latest South African Elections. The second question allowed the parties to introduce their campaign for the 2014 Namibian elections. After the individual introductions, Professor Diescho asked every participant to briefly line two to three main points of their party’s manifesto and their electoral programme. For the sake of this report, these are subsumed under the following section.

The first Political Party to give its speech was SWANU, represented by Dr. Tangeni Iiyambo. After struggling for independence from the former colonial regimes, today SWANU wants to make sure that all ethnic groups of the country are represented equally and have all their rights respected. SWANU highlighted the progressive loss of power ANC has experienced in the recent years, which has a significant impact for South Africa’s society. A parallel could be drawn between the two countries due to historical reasons and with access to full information the citizens of Namibia would also realize the need of change in the country having SWAPO lose its majority.

When it comes to the central issues of SWANU, Dr. Iiyambo addressed the importance of research as well as free education for all Namibian citizens, emphasising on the need for more vocational training among young students. Besides, SWANU advocates for a protection of private property in Namibia, ensuring that the profits made from the natural resources are reinvested for the benefit of the country, for instance, building new schools. Finally, Dr. Iiyambo mentioned the importance of access to land for the Namibians even though he did not propose specific measures as how to deal with the issue.

The SWAPO representative, Dr. Audrin Mathe, stressed that the South African elections were interesting for Namibia, because it showed to Namibia the need for parties to work together. He underlined that especially the youth would continue to gain more influence and thus their concerns should be considered more profoundly. SWAPO did not line out its main goals for the next electoral period but claimed that the other political parties were promising many improvements without expressing their implementation. Finally, SWAPO’s representative briefly pointed out the achievements of the SWAPO governments during the last 20 years of independence in terms of infrastructure developments, roads networks, the construction of new schools and clinics, etc., declaring that he felt that the party had done very well during its years in power.

Mr. Asser Mbai, representative of NUDO, first commemorated the former party leader Dr. Kuaima Riruako, who had passed away the day before. He stated that his party was currently formulating its manifesto and that its representatives had taken part in a respective KAS workshop in Omaruru. The central points for his party were to achieve reconciliation between the different peoples of Namibia in order to ensure a unified and peaceful nation. For this reason, NUDO considers that politics should be less ethnic- and more issue-oriented than it is today. Besides this, NUDO wants to improve the delivery of education and health to all citizens as well as stimulate the economic growth of the country through international investments. More concretely, NUDO preaches for affordable housing, particularly for young and single mothers, and a decentralisation of power, funds and resources to create peace and administrative effectiveness.

The DTA of Namibia representative Mr. Mchenry Venaani stressed that Namibia was a great country with a lot of natural resources, good infrastructure, telecommunications and water supply, to name but a few. Yet, his party considers that many changes and improvements still need to be done. DTA of Namibia would realign the economic system by stimulating investment, protecting private property, reforming the civil service and stopping capital flight to ensure that the economic growth is reinvested in poor rural areas. Furthermore, DTA wants to promote education, particularly vocational training for young people after the German role model and through the digitalisation of schools. Finally, Mr. Mchenry Venaani addressed the need to reduce poverty, especially supporting single mothers, increasing pensions and introducing a new land settlement programme to give ownership to the Namibian people.

The UDF party was represented by Mr. Daniel Tsaneb, who referred to the South African elections in terms of some issues raised during the electoral campaign, including corruption, the very powerful position of the youth and the lack of infrastructure to the poor. He also concluded that Namibia’s politics should be more issue- than ethnicity-centred. This became clear in the remarks on his party, which was still perceived as a tribal and single-ethnicity one, representing only Damara and their interests. Yet, he insisted on UDF being a multi-tribal and thus national party with one central goal: to achieve equality and justice for all, independently of the ethnicity. According to him, the inequalities in the country’s society were rooted in the corrupt practices of the ruling SWAPO, which must thus be removed from power, he concluded. Mr. Tsaneb failed to elaborate on what he meant by corrupt practices or provide examples thereof.

Mr. Hewat Benkes, the representative from the Worker’s Revolutionary Party frequently pointed out important successes in Namibia’s history to draw the guidelines of his party’s goals. According to him, the right of nations to self-determination was crucial for Namibia to achieve peace, wealth and freedom. The South African election had created a watershed. He stated that the outcome had been the will of the workers class. The voters would have voted for the nationalisation of mines and banks, whereas he discredited the ANC to be a black version of a nationalist and capitalist party. In his view, white people and their capital were still ruling Namibia imperialistically and in a racist manner. To that end, it was the time to gain real independence and self-determination for Namibia. In order to achieve this, his party pledged for respect among each group in order to unite the country, to support the Truth and Justice Commission as well as to combat modern slavery introduced by temporary work and to reinforce the trade unions and consequently the labour force, Mr Benkes concluded.

For the COD representative, Mr. Tsudao Gurirab, the major outcome of the South African elections was a technical one. According to his view, the 2014 elections showed that South Africa’s political system was now a robust democracy without the need of assistance from foreign countries. He particularly praised the transparency of the electoral process, which was one of the major lessons that Namibia could adapt for its own coming 2014 elections. Indeed, he insisted on the need of an independent body that would set the electoral rules and control the results. Concerning the reasons to vote for COD, he responded that his party would also put emphasis on the differences and individual needs of different groups in Namibia. Reconciliation was a crucial point for Namibia to create a unified society, yet, differences should have to be preserved and addressed in a targeted manner. Besides, COD advocated for free education for all.

The last party representative on the panel was Hon. Steve Bezedenhaut , representative of RDP. He underlined the importance to learn from other’s experiences. In his view, the most important thing Namibia could draw from the South African elections is, again, transparency. Being able to follow up the results in real time constituted a great achievement in electoral processes. Yet, the Electoral Law of Namibia was a mess and should thus be reformed very urgently. As the main goals of RDP he named the creation of a responsible and accountable government as well as unlocking Namibia’s economic potential by the education of its citizens.

In the subsequent discussion, the audience was asked to come up with questions to be answered by the party representatives. The questions included sanitation and fresh water management, lack of affordable housing, the stance towards the African Union and its overarching financing by European states (and thus a perceived form of neo-colonialism), the question why there were only old people in power and no representatives of the youth or ideas of the parties to combat the informal sector and black market in Namibia.

Conclusion

After the panelists responded to the questions, the evening concluded on a positive mood. The audience felt that the event should be repeated in the future. The Konrad Adenauer Foundation has indicated that a similar event is coming later in the year.